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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
"The battle for peace has begun." The Chancellor of the Klingon Empire asks for peace negotiations with the Federation, but factions on both sides try to prevent the two adversaries from reaching an understanding. Summary The Klingon economy is thrown into turmoil after the explosion of Praxis, a key Klingon energy production facility. The Klingon Empire sues for peace with the Federation. Starfleet chooses to send the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)|USS Enterprise]] to meet with Chancellor Gorkon to open negotiations, a decision that doesn't sit well with Captain James T. Kirk, who lost his son to Klingon commander Kruge in 2285. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) Captain Kirk, upon rendezvousing with Gorkon's battle cruiser Kronos One at the Klingon border, invites the Klingon chancellor along with his guests to dinner aboard the Enterprise. The dinner does not go well, as the humans and the Klingons spar on the eventual course of the projected peace, discussing, among other things, the possible annihilation of Klingon culture. West presents Operation Retrieve.]] Whilst en route to Earth, some time after the ceremonial dinner, the Enterprise appears to fire upon the unguarded Kronos One with a pair of torpedoes. The hits are scored in strategic spots on the ship's underside, and, among other things, artificial gravity on board the Klingon vessel fails. During the calamity, two men wearing Starfleet uniforms beam aboard Kronos One, and fight their way through to the chancellor's private room. Chancellor Gorkon is assassinated, although General Chang is notably absent. Captain Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy, after having beamed aboard Kronos One in an effort to save the chancellor's life, are arrested, accused of the crime and taken to Qo'noS for trial while Gorkon's daughter, Azetbur, becomes the new chancellor, and wishes to push forward with diplomatic negotiations, this time, for reasons of security, on a neutral world, the location of which is kept a secret from the general public and from most Starfleet and Klingon Defence Force officers. Kirk and McCoy, after a show trial on Kronos, are taken to the gulag Rura Penthe, a forced labor camp. After a brief time there, they meet a shapeshifter by the name of Martia, who conviniently offers them a method of escape. After making their way across the frozen wasteland that is the prison world, they are betrayed by Martia, who is killed by Klingon guards upon arriving at the scene. The Enterprise, however, manages to beam up the two in time, and escape across the border unmolested. The Enterprise contacts the starship [[USS Excelsior|USS Excelsior]], commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu, and learns of the location of the peace conference. Both ships, at opposite ends of Federation territorial space, head for the conference, at Camp Khitomer, at maximum speed. Shortly before reaching it, the Enterprise is intercepted by Chang's modified Klingon Bird-of-Prey (see: unnamed Klingon starships). Chang fires upon the Enterprise multiple times, and then upon the Excelsior when Sulu arrives midbattle, until a specialized torpedo, modified by Captain Spock and Dr. McCoy to track engine emissions from the Klingon ship, impacts Chang's vessel. The Excelsior and the Enterprise then fire repeatedly on the ship, which succumbs to the assault. It should be noted that while the vessel had the capability to fire while cloaked, it did not have the capability to raise shields while cloaked, giving it a huge and obvious weakness once it was found. Parties from both ships beam to the conference, halt an assassination attempt on the Federation President, kill the assassin, and arrest several conspirators. Afterwards, the Enterprise heads back for Earth, to be decommissioned, but not before the crew takes one last defiant joyride. Memorable Quotes Spock: "There is an old Vulcan proverb: 'Only Nixon could go to China.'" Spock: "An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth." Federation President: "As I imagine this work will occupy us throughout most of the week, it would be my hope that the delegations could return to their capitals to implement the provisions of Phase One no later then the first of next month." Spock: "If I were human, I believe my response to such an order would be, 'Go to Hell.'" Kirk: "You know what, Spock? Everybody's human." Spock: "I find that remark insulting." Spock: "I've been dead before." Chang: "Tell me, Doctor. What is your current medical status?" Doctor McCoy: "Well, aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good!" Gorkon: "I offer a toast. The 'underdiscovered country.' (There is silence) The future. Col. West on an attack on the Klingons: "We'll clean their chronometers." Chang (quoting Shakespeare): "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!" Background Information Landmarks * Although this is the final Star Trek film to feature the entire Star Trek: The Original Series cast together, only Leonard Nimoy (Spock), DeForest Kelley (Leonard H. McCoy) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) make their final Star Trek appearances in this film. William Shatner (James T. Kirk), James Doohan (Montgomery Scott), and Walter Koenig (Pavel A. Chekov) would later appear together in Star Trek: Generations, while George Takei (Hikaru Sulu) appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback". It should also be noted that Spock and McCoy have appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, long after the events of this film. *This movie is the first canon instance of Sulu's first name, Hikaru, being stated. Prior to the film, it was commonly used in the novels, but had never been made official. Also, this is the first instance, and very nearly the only one, of a central cast member, being permanently promoted off the Enterprise (in Sulu's case, to command of the Excelsior). The only other actual cases (i.e., not involving a ship's outright destruction or decommissioning) are Riker accepting command of the Titan in Nemesis and Worf accepting an appointment as Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire (though at this point he was serving aboard Deep Space Nine, rather than the Enterprise). *This is currently the only Star Trek movie shot in Super 35 format instead of anamorphic. Cast * Rene Auberjonois' role as Colonel West was cut from the theatrical release, as Gene Roddenberry was uncomfortable with ideas that were presented in his scenes. The scenes were later restored for the home release. Auberjonois would later play Constable Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. *Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand) and Mark Lenard (Sarek) are the only actors, besides the original cast, to appear in both this film and the first Star Trek: The Original Series film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. *Rand was supposed to be the character that wakes up Sulu to inform him that Starfleet was looking for the Enterprise instead of Christian Slater. Slater was a huge fan of the show and his mother - Mary Jo Slater, the movie's casting director - petitioned heavily to get him a part. Story and production * Original plans for the movie had Kirk married and all members of the main cast scattered around to different jobs. Uhura was a radio show hostess, Scotty a teacher and Sulu a taxi driver on some backwater alien colony. Budget limitations forced to leave all this out from the movie, and the scene at Starfleet Command was used instead. * An early storyboard draft featured the HMS Bounty in Spacedock being disassembled by Starfleet engineers. * Lt. Valeris was originally intended to be Lt. Saavik, but the scriptwriters decided later that it was out of character for Saavik to be a traitor. * Many of General Chang's quotes and the subtitle, "The Undiscovered Country," come from Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, by William Shakespeare. Chang also quotes from "Richard III", "King Lear", "The Merchant of Venice", and "Henry IV, Part II". * Nichelle Nichols objected to the scene in which the crew desperately searches through old printed Klingonese translation dictionaries in order to speak the language without the standard universal translator being used. It seemed more logical to her that Uhura, being the ship's chief communications officer, would know the language of the Federation's main enemy, or at least have the appropriate information in the computer. However, director Nicholas Meyer bluntly overruled her. * Uhura originally had a very racist line "Would you let your daughter marry one?" (that is, a Klingon), but the line had to be cut because Nichols absolutely declined to say it. Chekov's line "Guess who's coming to dinner?" was also originally Uhura's, but Nichols considered it also to be racist and declined to say it. The line was moved to Chekov. * The first scene at the Rura Penthe was heavily influenced by the "Bridge of River Kwai", where the commandant of the POW camp gives a similar speech to the new British prisoners. Sets and props * If you could see a clear picture of General Chang's eyepatch, you'd see Klingon symbols painted on the heads of each rivet (the makeup artist painted them on for fun. They were never really intended to be seen). Although no clear scene from the movie shows them, they can be seen on the movie poster used in this article. * Most of the Enterprise-A sets were redresses of ''Enterprise''-D sets. ** Kirk's and Spock's quarters (Data's quarters) ** Transporter room (Enterprise-D transporter room) ** Sickbay (Enterprise-D sickbay) ** Laboratory (Beverly Crusher's office) ** Officer mess hall (the dining room, redress of Enterprise-D observation lounge) ** Main Engineering (clear redress of the Enterprise-D engineering. They simply replaced the display graphics and repainted some surfaces.) ** corridors (retouched with more metallic appearance) ::These sets had been in turn recycled by TNG from the first three movies. The TNG warp core was a complete redress of the first movie's plasma conduits, Data's quarters a redress of Ilia's quarters. Even the sickbay from TNG was recycled from the movies' sickbay. * The office of the Federation President is a redress of Ten Forward. A viewscreen is located in place of the art ornament behind the bar counter, and the walls are painted with some shade of brown. The easily noticeable windows are covered with curtains, and a view of Paris first seen in "We'll Always Have Paris" is visible through them. * The Enterprise has some strange upwards-sliding doors. Nothing wrong with them, but when they are opened they will also cut the flow of whatever is moving through the pipes running along the ceiling of most of the corridors. Miscellaneous * Gene Roddenberry saw the movie three days before he died. * The kitchen scene was quickly written to the movie just to demonstrate that you can't fire a phaser onboard the ship without triggering an alarm. (This begs the question - just how tactically important is the kitchen that it needs an unsecured locker full of phasers?) * The blue food at the dinner scene was so disgusting that actors had to be bribed to eat it. Shatner did it and won $240, before throwing up. * On the bridge, just before the first torpedo was fired at the Klingon vessel, there were about four extra bridge crewmembers, one of which, was already sitting down. After the first shot was fired, when everybody was trying to find out what had happened, out of nowhere, there were enough bridge crewpeople to fill about eight more seats. * It's also rather odd that during the confrontation between the Enterprise, the Excelsior, and Chang's ship over Khitomer, no mention is made of any other ships in orbit (just how did all those dignitaries get there, anyway?) * Given how severely the Klingons were demanding Kirk's extradition for the deaths of Kruge and his crew at the start of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, it's curious that the Klingons don't seem interested in prosecuting him for this now that they have him in custody. Links and References Cast *William Shatner as James T. Kirk *Leonard Nimoy as Spock *DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy *James Doohan as Montgomery Scott *Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov *Nichelle Nichols as Uhura *George Takei as Hikaru Sulu *Kim Cattrall as Valeris *Mark Lenard as Sarek *Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand *Brock Peters as Cartwright *Leon Russom as Bill (the commander-in-chief) *Kurtwood Smith as the Federation President (see: Federation Presidents) *Christopher Plummer as Chang *Rosana DeSoto as Azetbur *David Warner as Gorkon *Michael Dorn as Colonel Worf *Paul Rossilli as Kerla *Brett Porter as Stex *Jeremy Roberts as Dmitri Valtane *Boris Lee Krutonog as Lojur *Iman as Martia *Katie Johnston as young Martia *Darryl Henriques as Nanclus *Michael Snyder as Crewman Dax *Rene Auberjonois as Colonel West *Eric A. Stillwell as an extra *Alan Marcus as an assassin (Burke or Samno) (uncredited) ;Unnamed Starfleet personnel *Judy Levitt as a military aide *Shakti as the aide-de-camp ;[[Unnamed USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) personnel|Unnamed USS Enterprise-A personnel]] *Carlos Cestero as the munitions man *Edward Clements as the young crewman ;[[Unnamed USS Excelsior personnel|Unnamed USS Excelsior personnel]] *Michael Bofshever as an ''Excelsior'' engineer *Angelo Tiffe as a navigator *Christian Slater as night-shift communications officer *Louis Ortiz as an alien crewman (uncredited) ;Unnamed Klingons *John Schuck as the Klingon ambassador *Robert Easton as the Klingon judge *Clifford Shegog as a Klingon officer *William Morgan Sheppard as the Klingon commandant *Todd Bryant as the Klingon translator *Jim Boeke as a Klingon general *Matthias Hues as a Klingon general *David Orange as the sleepy Klingon *Douglas Dunning as a Klingon (uncredited) *J.D. Walters as a Klingon (uncredited) ;Unnamed aliens *Tom Morga as the Brute *John Bloom as the Behemoth alien *Doug Engalla as a prisoner at Rura Penthe References Adam and Eve; artificial gravity; Beta Quadrant; bird-of-prey; boat; boatswain's whistle; Bridge; Julius Caesar; Camp Khitomer; Marc Chagall; chameloid; chancellor; China; cloaking device, Klingon; coffee; colonel; commander in chief; commandant; crew quarters; Davis (Crewman); deflector shield; dilithium; Earth; Earth Cold War; ''Enterprise''-A, USS; Excelsior class; ''Excelsior'', USS; USS Excelsior personnel; Federation President; Federation-Klingon Cold War; France; galley; Garden of Eden; gravitational unit; gravity boot; gulag; Hamlet; Adolf Hitler; Interstellar Law; Jackal mastiff; Khitomer; Khitomer Accords; Khitomer Conference; Khitomer conspiracy; kill setting; Klingon Bird-of-Prey; Klingon Empire; Klingons; Klingon history; Klingon Neutral Zone; Klingon uniform; Kobayashi Maru scenario; ''Kronos One'', IKS; K't'inga class; Abraham Lincoln; listening post; magnetic boot; magnetic gravity boots; medical tricorder; Morska; Neutral zone; neutron radiation; Richard M. Nixon; Operation Retrieve; Paris; penal colony; phaser; photon torpedo; plasma; plasma exhaust; Praxis; Qo'noS; Romulan ale; Romulan Star Empire; Rura Penthe; sabotage; San Francisco; SD-103; SD-103 type; Shakespeare, William; sickbay; smoking; Starfleet; Starfleet Academy; stun setting; subspace; subspace shockwave; targ; Tiberian bat; torpedo bay; torpedo launcher; United Federation of Planets; Ursva; viridium patch; Vulcan; Vulcan mind meld; warp drive; weapons locker. Other references USS Ahwahnee; USS Aries; USS Challenger; communications station; USS Constellation; Constitution class; Davis (Crewman); USS Eagle; Efrosian; USS Emden; USS Endeavour; USS Helin; USS John Muir; USS Kongo; USS Korolev; Oberth class; USS Oberth; USS Potemkin; science station; USS Scovil; USS Springfield; Starbase 24; USS Whorfin; D. Wise Timeline ; 1938 : Hitler quoted as saying "we need breathing room." ; 2220s : Beginning of a 70-plus year-long period of what Spock describes as "unrelenting hostilities" with the Klingons. ; 2285 : A Klingon sergeant kills David Marcus. ; 2290 : Excelsior begins 3-year exploratory tour in Beta Quadrant. ; 2293 : Praxis explodes. Media * Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Edition) Apocrypha * Star Trek VI was adapted into novel form by Jeanne M. Dillard. * A comics adaptation was written by Peter David and drawn by Gordon Purcell and Arne Starr * An interesting novel and comic sequel to the events of this film, "The Ashes of Eden", written by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, depicts a plot created by a Klingon-Romulan alliance, staged in Chal, a homeworld populated by a race of genetically engineered Klingon-Romulans. Kirk is called there by a native of the planet, Teilani, to help her people with this crisis. External Links * * Undiscovered Country, The de:Star Trek VI: Das unentdeckte Land fr:Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country nl:Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country sv:Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country